Chip and Dale Park Life: The First Show I Watched With No Dialogue

Wow! Looks like we made it to the shows where I don't have to tweet things anymore!

I was originally going to discuss Park Life with Rescue Rangers, but decided against that because Park Life Chip and Dale and Rescue Rangers Chip and Dale are pretty different. Not necessarily in dynamic, but definitely in tone. Rescue Rangers is an adventure show that plays things straight, with most of the comedy coming from the bickering brothers. Park Life is more inspired by the old Disney Chip and Dale shorts.

I'm gonna be honest, Disney shorts aren't really my forte outside Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, so I can't really say how well these new ones hold up. I recall not liking the old Chip and Dale shorts a whole lot the older I got.

I guess going into the new series... It's. Very Modern. Chip and Dale get a smartphone in the second episode and watch baby chipmunk videos on it. There's a lot of modern trends like food trucks and Doordash. Personally I like when shows try to be modern. While the timeless show can be enjoyed any time, that "hip" thing really puts it in the era of when it came out. If that makes sense. 

Also this show has some interesting references

 

(I did ask my friends more well-versed in anime than I am and they confirmed this was likely an Attack on Titan joke)

Also, to remind you this is a French Cartoon.... Here's a joke about a French Cartoon

 

I guess the show is pretty French, though not in the most overt ways. They included some faces from the European comics: The Beagle Boys, which was fun to see. I think the Beagle Boys fit a lot better in a silent show since they're all kinda faceless criminals.

Speaking of criminal, Dale brings an eggbaby to a bar.

Despite this horrid crime though, Dale is usually the silly goofy and sometimes selfish one. It's the responsible Chip who is decidedly fucked up, going into that any sane man would go mad in this situation direction. One episode he sits in a mailbox waiting for a nutcracker, and another he goes feral after getting lost in a bush. Though one of my favorites is the one where Dale thinks Chip is going to kill him. Like it's an earlier episode but sitting through them more I think I get why.

That's kind of the main problem of Park Life. It's difficult to follow. The episode I just described, "Bird Brains," seems to skip a lot of important information. Dale just wakes up paranoid that Chip is going to kill him from the start. There's a peacock who shows up once and never again and suggests the park is run by a monarchy of pretty people. 

The shorts themselves are hit and miss too. Aside from it being a very emotional show with a lot of chipmunk laughter and tears (which it has to be because it is silent), The dynamics across the shorts vary somewhat.

Take the Donald shorts from the last episode. In "Delivery Duck," the chipmunks act uncharacteristically rude toward Donald for delivering their DoorDash food late. Maybe it's the millennial adult in me, but seeing Chip and Dale be rude to a Dasher who didn't do anything wrong seems so awful. Contrast with "Dark in the Park," where Donald and Dale are acting rude to one another due to more subtle selfish natures. Donald mocks Dale in a very ordinary human way and the back and forth begins.

In that regard Park Life is pretty hit or miss, but on top of that it's boring. It's one of those shows where I appreciate the work that went into it, but sometimes, it just doesn't land for me!

I don't know if this one is going to have a season 2, but if it does, I'll come back to it!

Rating for Chip and Dale Park Life: C Tier